When you think about dark fantasy manga, odds are the first title that pops into your head is Berserk, and for good reason. Berserk is world-renowned for its dark tone and brutal fight scenes. It's also one of the few manga that just can't seem to be captured well in an anime.
While Berserk is excellent and a series you should definitely read, it's not the only worthwhile manga series that Kentaro Miura has ever made. He's made a total of 8 and today we are going to deep dive into a mostly good body of work.
7 Berserk The Prototype
As the title gives away, this was more or less the test run for the manga we all know and love today. As such, there things in it that work and others that fall very flat. It's very much a manga by someone still getting their footing in the field. The tone remained the same through much of the book, but there are elements of Guts' character that were smartly discarded.
The first of which is the eye patch. It just didn't work for his character, making him look more like a fake tough guy than actual badass. Personality-wise he's also far too whimsical and silly, getting along with Puck rather than finding him annoying during their journeys. By and large, this is a book you can pass on.
6 Noa
Quality rises a little bit with Noa, a post-apocalyptic style story set on Earth after a major war. It follows 4 characters as they try to find a way to travel off of the ruined planet. It's a simple story and one with a fair bit of potential. Trying to flee a dying world is always a setting ripe for good character development.
Unfortunately, this manga isn't able to reach those heights as it's a story that was never truly finished due to arguments with his publisher. There are nice similarities between Noah and Guts though, both being soldiers who've seen and done things that changed their view of the world. Given that this never really finished, it really isn't worth a look.
5 Futatabi
Futatabi is another manga set in a post-apocalyptic world that was torn apart by some unnamed war. Unlike Noa, this is a one-shot that actually got completed. The art is a little rough around the edges, the main girl having a rather derpy-looking face in certain panels.
That said, the story is pretty good. Forced to live in caves beneath the ground, humanity has had to curtail its growth. To do this, they separate men and women into two different colonies, area A and area B. This works for an undisclosed period of time before a woman escapes into the area housing the men. From there the story mostly focuses on the growing relationship between Rick and the girl as well as their subsequent attempt to find a world they can be together in.
4 Japan
By now Miura has really started to find his groove as an artist. It's stylish and graphic, just like any fan of Berserk would like. The main character is even a bit of a Guts look-alike. It's even got a pretty good message tied into it, though one that's a little heavy-handed.
The story takes a look at how a nation can fall, in this case, Japan. That for all its economic strength, when war comes, only those with a strong military can survive. There are parallels to Carthage and a look into how people with today's mindset could survive in a dictatorship where their kind are treated as nothing more than slaves. It's certainly worth a read.
3 King of Wolves
This is a collection of the first and second collaboration (Japan was the third) with Burosan, of Fist of the North Star fame. When you combine Burosan and Miura you know you're going to get two things. A world devoid of technology and one where the main character is a badass who can't be stopped by mortal hands. As expected both of those are here.
The usual tropes the two follow aside, this is a pretty good story. Two characters get sucked into 13th century Mongolia, one of which is forced into being a warrior slave under Genghis Khan himself. The only true downside to this book is it resolves a bit too quickly. It could have used some time to breathe, rather than moving at a breakneck pace.
2 Duranki
This is the newest creation of Miura and one that feels like such a stark departure from what he usually does. It doesn't feel as dark, more whimsical and fluffy. That the main character is a small loli type character rather than a badass soldier is a bit jarring for anyone who's been a long term fan of his work as well.
The backdrop for the story so far has been interesting, set within Mesopotamian mythology, with other religions showing up as well. It's a little too early to get a full grasp on where the plot is going, but the direction they are heading so far is interesting. There is one warning though. As with Berserk, there's a lot of nudity. That in itself isn't bad, but when a couple of the characters are very childlike, it's rather uncomfortable.
1 Gigantomachia
This is the one work of Miura's that nears the lofty heights of his magnum opus, Berserk. If you only read one book on this list, this is the one to pick up. The art here is fantastic, capturing large cosmic level horrors in a light that very few artists can. Miura does a great job of capturing people's emotions through their eyes as well. Some of the looks from Prom really convey her emotionless state better than words could.
The story is top-notch as well, following a gladiator named Delos and a mystic girl named Prom as they try to heal the shattered world. These two have personalities that are such stark contrasts of one another, Delos being very carefree and Prom being almost robotic in nature. Beyond their dynamic, this story is all about the perseverance of man and always having hope. The moral being that we need to be able to forgive rather than rushing off for vengeance.